Fighting Words

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-10

Chapters 11-20

Chapters 21-26

Chapters 27-36

Chapters 37-47

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Purple High-Top Sneakers

Suki finds a pair of purple high-top sneakers at Old Navy and shows them to Della. The shoes quickly become symbolic of her new start away from the free clothes bin and Clifton’s home. The sneakers also symbolize Suki’s love and care for Della, as she sacrifices a few items in her own cart to buy them. As Suki buys her the shoes, Della thinks, “I could always count on Suki. Suki fixed everything” (17). Della views Suki as someone upon whom she can always rely on to fix her problems, as Suki has done all their lives.

The sneakers take on a new meaning after Suki attempts suicide. The sneakers represent Della’s guilt, as she feels she burdened Suki to the point that Suki wanted to die by suicide. After leaving Suki at the hospital, Della sees her high-top sneakers and thinks: “I took too much from her. My fault. I loved my high-tops, but right at that moment I hated them too” (176). To Della, the shoes are physical proof that she pushed Suki to her breaking point by being too selfish and demanding. Della goes back to wearing the sneakers from the free clothing bin because she no longer feels she deserves to wear the purple high-top sneakers when she has already taken so much from Suki.

Della admits these feelings to her sister, who reframes the shoes in a way that enables Della to love them again. Suki assures Della, “[Y]ou give me more than you take” (207), which assuages Della’s guilt and reaffirms that Suki loves and cherishes Della regardless of sacrifices Suki needed to make for her. Suki helps Della realize that Della is not a burden, which allows Della to appreciate the shoes as a symbol of the sacrifices Suki willingly makes for her.

Semicolon and Ampersand Tattoo

After her suicide attempt, Suki gets a tattoo of a semicolon on her wrist next to her scar. When she first comes home from the mental health facility, Della wants Suki to “absolutely swear [she’ll] never try anything like that again” (219). Suki is only able to promise Della that she will do her best to continue getting better, which is not enough assurance for Della.

When Suki gets the tattoo, she explains its meaning to Della: “You use semicolons when you don’t want to use a period [...] My sentence—my story—it’s going to keep going on” (226). The semicolon is a well-established symbol of mental health awareness and suicide prevention. Suki places it next to her scar as a constant reminder: “Anytime I look at my wrist, I won’t just see what I almost did. I’ll see what I’m going to do—keep going” (226-27). The tattoo acts as a promise to both Suki and Della that she can overcome her traumatic past and continue looking toward a future that she controls and creates.

The tattoo’s meaning resonates with Della, who is also a survivor. When Suki tells her that she cannot get a semicolon tattoo because “[p]eople will think something about [her] that isn’t true” (227), Della seeks out her own symbol. She finds it in the ampersand, which means “union. Or going on a journey. Or [...] an expectation for something more to occur” (256). Though Della is young, she is mature enough to understand the significance of looking to the future. To her, the ampersand is a reminder that she is free to follow her dreams. She and Suki both get the tattoo, which symbolizes their bond of sisterhood. Suki and Della survived their upbringing together. While their stories are different, they are interconnected, and their stories will continue to connect and diverge as they grow and forge their own paths. Now that they have other people to rely on, they can begin to envision individual futures and goals for themselves, while still nurturing, honoring, and maintaining their bond.

Wolves

Wolves are a motif that represent both the way Suki and Della have always had to fend for themselves, and Della’s love of the animals’ strength and pack mentality. Della recalls Teena’s mother comparing Suki and Della’s upbringing to being raised by wolves. Suki bristles at the comparison because she understands that it implies they lack stable adult figures to teach them manners and social conventions. Della, however, views it in a positive light: “Imagine how safe and warm you’d be, sleeping every night in a den full of wolves [...] Plus, Suki pretty much was a wolf. She’d outfight anything. She was my own private wolf” (89). For much of her life, Della views herself and Suki as a pack of two. She is unable to rely on anyone else in her life for safety, support, and stability, so Suki fills all of those roles for her.

The wolf motif becomes even more important to Della in the wake of Suki’s suicide attempt. Because she so closely identifies with wolves, she attributes wolf characteristics and facts to her and Suki’s lives: “Did you know grown-up wolves have no natural predators? [...] once they’re grown up nothing can stop them. [...] Suki and me, once we grew all the way up, nothing could take us down” (212). Della evokes her and Suki’s wolf pack of two again here, announcing her belief in their future invincibility. This shows the faith she has in her sister’s strength, as well as her certainty that the two of them will stick together forever.

After they begin their personal journeys to healing, Della realizes that she has the leadership and strength of a wolf all on her own. She is still bonded to Suki, but she no longer needs to rely on her sister. Della displays her skills when she leads a group of girls in her class to stand up to Trevor’s bullying, alerting their teacher to his inappropriate behavior and inciting real change. Della reflects on the moment, thinking about how she and her friends had “worked as a pack, all us girls. A wolf pack” (245). Della realizes her own power with these events, while maintaining her belief that a cohesive group is stronger than an individual.

Lastly, wolves become a symbol of the future for Della. In therapy, Della realizes that she and Suki have lived in survival mode for their entire lives, which prevented them from having dreams or considering their distant futures. Now that she and Suki are safe and being taken care of, they are finally in a place where they can make plans for themselves. For the first time, adults encourage Della and Suki to dream and help them figure out ways to realistically achieve their desires. Seeing wolves in real life becomes an aspiration for Della, who no longer has to set her dreams permanently aside because they are unfeasible.